NYTimes Archives: News article that inspired 2Pac’s “Brenda’s Got A Baby”
A newborn baby was rescued from a trash compactor in Brooklyn yesterday morning when two maintenance men heard the baby’s cries just as they were about to start the crushing machine’s motors, the police said.
Detectives said the mother was a 12-year-old girl who admitted that she had thrown the baby down a trash chute shortly after giving birth in her apartment in the building. The 12-year-old, whose name was not released, had not been charged with a crime last night.
The maintenance workers heard the baby’s cries about 9:45 A.M. and called the police. A patrol sergeant, Philip Insardi, said he crawled through the compactor’s small metal doors and shined a flashlight onto the mound of garbage that was about to be squeezed between the machine’s walls.
“His feet were sticking out from under some newspapers,” Sergeant Insardi said. “There was the baby, lying on top of the garbage. He wasn’t making a peep when I got there.”
If the machine had started, he said, “the kid was history.”
The sergeant wrapped the infant in his shirt and handed him to an ambulance crew. The child, with his umbilical cord still attached, was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia, the police said.
The 6-pound 10-ounce infant was in stable condition last night in the care of nurses, who named him Trevor, said Mimi Grinker, a hospital spokeswoman. The young mother was also in the hospital for observation. No Injury Despite Fall
Investigators said the baby had not been injured by the long fall down the chute. “It’s a miracle, alright,” Sergeant Insardi said.
After the baby was rescued from the trash compactor, detectives from the 73d Precinct canvassed residents of the six-story apartment building at 37 New Lots Avenue in the East New York section and found a woman in apartment 4E, Gladys Perry, who said she believed her 12-year-old daughter was the baby’s mother. The detectives then went to Thelma J. Hamilton Junior High School at 985 Rockaway Avenue and took the teen-ager out of class.
“She denied it at first,” said Sgt. Timothy Phelan of the 73d Precinct squad. “We took her to Brookdale. The doctors examined her and said she had just given birth.”
Confronted by the doctors, the girl admitted to detectives that she had given birth in her fourth-floor apartment and had dropped the infant down the chute, the police said.
“She is not admitting who the father is or that she even had sex,” Lieut. Eugene Albright said. She would also not say why she tried to dispose of the baby, he said.
Lieutenant Albright said the 12-year-old lived with two brothers and Mrs. Perry. Although Mrs. Perry told the police that the teen-ager was her daughter, investigators said last night that it was unclear what their relationship is.
Detectives said the baby was born sometime in the early morning. The mother apparently abandoned the baby about 7 A.M., they said.
Lieutenant Albright said Mrs. Perry had told investigators that she worked at night and was not in the apartment when the baby was born. No charges had been filed against her last night, and investigators were still trying to determine whether she was culpable.
The infant will be placed in foster care when he leaves the hospital, the police said.
The boy was born in a six-story tenement on the corner of Stone Avenue, a depressed area of littered streets, empty lots and broken sidewalks. A security guard is posted at an iron gate in front of the building, and floodlights illuminate the courtyard.
None of the neighbors seemed to be aware that the teen-ager was pregnant. Several expressed shock that the police believe she tried to kill her baby.
“I was hurt because it was a baby having a baby,” said a woman who lives on the same floor and asked not to be identified. “She should have been getting the proper help. I could have taken the baby.”
Photo from video: vimeo.com
88-year-old man beaten, carjacked while shopping for Mother’s Day gift for his wife
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. (WFTS/CNN) — For 88-year-old Robert Rodriguez, running errands is part of his daily routine. So, when a man shoved a gun to his stomach and demanded his wallet, he couldn’t believe it.
The ambush-style attack happened around 3 p.m. on Thursday in the parking lot of Bealls located at 12125 US Highway 19 in New Port Richey.
“I was still in the car when this guy appeared from someplace and put a gun in my side and asked for my wallet,” Rodriguez said. “I pretended I didn’t understand. Finally, he told me to get out of the car give me your keys; give me your keys.”
Rodriguez gave the man the keys then got knocked to the ground. His elbow is purple from the deep bruise he got when he landed on the pavement.
“He could’ve shot,” Rodriguez said, grateful he escaped with just bruises.
Rodriguez said he was going to the store to buy his wife of 64 years new pajamas for Mother’s Day.
“I went this morning and got them,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez’s car was found less than a mile away from where the incident happened.
According to information provided by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office:
The victim described the suspect as a light-skinned black or Hispanic male in his 40s-50s, 5’6″-5’7″ tall, approximately 160 pounds wearing all black clothing and sunglasses. He was also clean shaven with short hair. The vehicle was located less than one mile south of Beall’s, abandoned on the south side of a building located at 11610 US 19 in Port Richey (at the intersection of US 19 and Gulf Highlands Drive).
A witness at that location observed a light-skinned black male exit the vehicle matching the descriptors provided by the victim. The witness recognized the driver as a black male whose name is possibly Allen (unknown spelling). This subject may also be known as or referred to as “Killa” or “Killer.”
Photo Credit: kmov.com
FL Mother arrested for abusing baby because he couldn’t stand
Pinellas Park, FL (WFTS ) — A mother in Pinellas County is facing several charges after she was arrested for abusing her 10-month-old son, according to the Pinellas Park Police Department.
Investigators say 25-year-old Natalee Sesler cursed at the baby and threw him against a wooden fence because she was frustrated that he was unable to stand up. It happened around 6 p.m. on Saturday in the the 5900 block of 72nd Avenue.
After that, police say Sesler threw the head of a metal rake at the baby with the intention of hitting him, but missed. She was then seen picking the hysterically crying baby up by his leg and throwing him on a beach type lawn chair, police say.
The baby had a small bruise and swelling near one of his eyes, according to police. They also say he appeared malnourished and lethargic.
When police responded, they found the baby wearing only a shirt with no pants or diaper on, they say. Sesler was also wearing only a shirt at the time police made contact with her.
Police say they spoke with two juvenile witnesses who live nearby and saw the abuse. According to police, Sesler was visiting an unknown male at a home in the area at the time.
The baby was taken to a local hospital by officials, where he will remain for observation and further testing while in protective custody. Then he will be turned over to local family members by the Department of Children and Families, police say.
Sesler was charged with one count of child abuse, one count of child neglect, aggravated assault, resisting an officer without violence and violation of probation. Police say she appeared to be under the influence of narcotics.
Photo Credit: kmov.com
Texas Stepfather Who Reported 4-Year-Old Girl Missing Has Been Arrested
The man who reported a 4-year-old Texas girl had been abducted from him last weekend was arrested near Houston Saturday and police say they have found blood in his apartment linked to Maleah Davis.
Darion Vence, who lived with Maleah and her mother, was arrested without incident at his brother’s home in Sugar Land, Texas, about 22 miles (35 kilometers) southwest of Houston, a statement from Houston police said. He was charged with tampering with evidence.
Vence told police last Saturday that men in a pickup truck abducted him, 4-year-old Maleah and his 2-year-old son before freeing him and the boy. But Sugar Land police, who initially interviewed him, said his story kept changing and didn’t add up.
Houston police said Saturday that some details of his story turned out to be false. Vence reported his silver Nissan Altima was taken in the abduction but surveillance video showed that vehicle was used to drop Vence off later at a hospital, where he reported the abduction, police said.
“Blood evidence obtained from Vence’s apartment has been linked to Maleah,” the Houston police statement said.
Vence also was observed carrying a full laundry basket from the apartment, police said. That basket was later found in the trunk of the Nissan along with a gas can.
Maleah’s mother Brittany Bowens, said Vence is her former fiance. Bowens appeared outside her apartment Friday as Quanell X, a local civil rights activist, addressed reporters on her behalf.
Quanell X said that Vence had abused Maleah and that Bowens believes Vence harmed the girl.
Police have described Vence as Maleah’s stepfather. But Quanell X said that Vence and Bowens were recently in a fight and she broke off their engagement.
Child Protective Services removed Maleah and her brothers from the home Vence and Bowens shared in August after the girl suffered a head wound, but the children were returned in February, according to an agency spokeswoman.
via: https://ktla.com/2019/05/11/texas-stepfather-who-reported-4-year-old-girl-missing-has-been-arrested/
Photo Credit: ktla.com/Houston police
Man flips vehicle trying to remove spider from his leg
BATAVIA, N.Y. — The Genesee County Sheriff’s Office says a man flipped his vehicle while trying remove a spider from his leg Friday afternoon.
According to the sheriff’s office, the Alexander, N.Y. man was traveling northbound on Route 98 near Rose Road around 1:30 p.m. when he stated a spider jumped on his leg and startled him.
Deputies say the man stated he tried to get the spider off his leg which caused him to go off the road and strike an embankment causing his vehicle to flip.
No one was injured in the incident.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/05/11/man-flips-vehicle-trying-to-remove-spider-from-his-leg/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
70-year-old Florida man driving on highway stands through sun roof, leaves car on cruise control at 100 mph
Polk County, FL (WFTS) — Florida Highway Patrol Troopers arrested a Lakeland driver after being caught on video standing through a sun roof as the car continued to speed down Interstate 4 in Polk County.
An off-duty Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputy was behind 70-year-old Leonard Olsen when he stood up while driving westbound on I-4 at a high rate of speed, according to an arrest report.
Video captured Olsen standing up in a white Cadillac with his arms spread open around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
In a sworn witness interview, the deputy said Oslen “bounced back and forth in the center lane…and sped up to over 100 miles per hour and slowed to about 40 miles per hour.”
Troopers caught up to Oslen on US-98 and Wedgewood Estates Blvd.
When asked why he did it, Olsen told troopers he wanted to praise God.
“I thought it would be a nice way to praise God for a minute, and I thought it would be nice at the time and that’s what I did,” he said, according to arrest records.
He also told deputies the vehicle was in cruise control at the time.
“The car drivers itself and has a gigantic computer in it,” he said according to records.
Before he was detained, Olsen told FHP troopers he’d rather go to jail than go home.
“My wife treats me like a servant and she’s the mistress,” he said. “Lock me up, I’d rather go to jail than go back home.”
Olsen is charged with reckless driving.
He remains booked at the Polk County Jail on a $21,000 bond.
Photo Credit: kmov.com/Florida Highway Patrol
Man with handcuffs, dog chain, condoms and a Plan B pill in his possession thought he was meeting 13-year-old girl for sex
McKinney, TX (KTVT) — Authorities in Texas arrested a man who they say went to the town of McKinney on Wednesday with the intention of having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
Dillon Summerlin, 21, was charged with online solicitation of a minor.
Authorities say an investigator with the Collin County Sheriff’s Office posed as the girl in an online forum and started communicating with Summerlin. The 21-year-old told the “girl” that he would travel to McKinney to have sex with her.
When Summerlin arrived at the meeting location on Wednesday, deputies made the arrest. He was found with handcuffs, a dog chain, condoms and a Plan B pill in his possession.
Authorities say they are also investigating his cellphone and that additional charges are possible.
“If you use the Internet to prey upon our children, or if you travel to Collin County for the purpose of having sex with a child, we will find you,” Chief Deputy Matt Langan said.
Photo Credit: kmov.com/Collin County Sheriff’s Office
Funeral home accused of secretly selling body parts
MONTROSE, Colo. (KMGH) — A Colorado funeral home is accused of victimizing families after claims that it secretly sold body parts in the hours after death.
Megan Hess, the owner of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, and her parents are now under investigation by the FBI.
Contact7 Chief Investigative Reporter Tony Kovaleski traveled to Montrose and talked to more than a half dozen family members — now victims — about what they describe as a scheme to profit from their pain.
With a population of about 20,000, Montrose is a community surrounded by the beauty of the Rocky Mountains. It’s a community struggling to understand the stories and the accusations about what happened in the back room at Sunset Mesa.
“I go to sleep with the visions of him being dismembered with a power saw,” said Ruthie Pettyjohn, whose son’s body parts were allegedly sold.
Pettyjohn now lives with the memory of what happened to the body of her 26-year-old son, Brian.
“They desecrated his little body,” she said. “They cut him up in pieces and sent them all over the place.”
Connie Hanson’s son’s body parts were also allegedly sold. Like many, Hanson found out about her son Frederick during a phone call from an FBI agent.
“It’s sickening,” said Hanson. “[The FBI] told me his head was sent to so-and-so. His two shoulders went somewhere else. I said ‘I don’t want to hear anymore.’”
Another alleged victim said her mother’s body was desecrated.
“I’ve been violated,” said Alena Holloman. “My mother and my mother’s body has been desecrated.”
Holloman now deals with the guilt of knowing details of what happened to her mom’s body.
“She was sold, embalmed and shipped out within just a few hours of her death,” said Holloman.
They’re united by the pain of believing they purchased cremation services for their loved ones, knowing they never agreed to let Hess dismember the bodies.
They are struggling with claims she created a product with a power saw and angry that she ultimately profited from the sale of arms, heads legs, torsos even whole bodies.
“Body snatcher, vile, pure evil, sociopath,” are the words they used when asked to describe Hess.
Jacque Hampson spent a year working as Hess’s personal assistant. She told Contact7 Investigates that she heard bodies being dismembered.
“You could hear the machine going,” she told Kovaleski. “It was kind of creepy.”
Hess, along with her mother and father, are all named in a lawsuit, which accuses them of using a backroom to dismember cadavers with a power saw and stack body parts in coolers.Choose a Room with a View of Whatever you LikePick the room of your choice and get our Price Match Guarantee…Only at Hilton.comAd By Hilton See More
The lawsuit claims the three sold torsos for $1,000, a pelvis with upper legs for $1,200. Heads went for $500 and $250 for a knee — prices at significantly discounted rates compared to other body brokers.
The lawsuit estimates the three were making $40,000 a month from the sale of body parts.
Denver attorneys Mike Berg and Dave Teselle now represent more than 50 families who claim Hess and her parents victimized them.
“Think about it, the FBI came in and raided them, and they raided them because they knew this body broker — this was getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” said Berg. “Its tentacles go throughout not only the country but the world.”
“These people deserve to know why what was done to them was done to them. Why their loved ones were stolen from them, and they were given back dry cement or sand and told it was loved ones’ ashes,” said Teselle.
The FBI hired a lab to test the cremains given to the families, and they have determined the boxes of ash contain cement, sand and other non-human particles. Hanson’s box included wires and what appear to be old batteries.
“I know these are not his ashes because his body parts went all over the country,” Hanson said.
Hoping to get answers, Denver7 visited Hess’ home in Montrose. We were greeted at the door by her father, who told us to leave the property.
Colorado regulators have shut down the funeral home.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Mom charged after child opens backpack filled with ‘hundreds of bugs’ at school
MILTON, Fla. — A 33-year-old mother is facing multiple counts of child neglect after investigators made a disturbing discovery at her home.
According to WTSP, it all started when teachers at school took notice of one of Jessica Stevenson’s five children.
They all reportedly suffered from poor hygiene, and at least one child was seen wearing the same dirty clothes for a week.
The child told the school’s behavior coach that she couldn’t remember the last time she had a bath or shower.
WTSP said the behavior coach had also seen “hundreds of bugs” crawl out of the girl’s backpack at lunch.
Deputies went to the children’s home where they discovered roaches crawling throughout the house.
The kitchen shelves were empty and there was rotten food in the fridge.
The local TV news station reported that Stevenson’s bedroom was a stark contrast from the rest of the home.
Her space was said to be clean and had “minimal roaches.” She also reportedly had a flat screen TV in there along with snacks.
She has since bonded out of jail.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Utah mom files civil rights suit against bus driver who closed doors, dragged biracial son – bus driver denies he’s racist because his dog is black
Disturbing video shows a 13-year-old boy’s backpack getting caught in the doors of his school bus, then being dragged nearly 175 feet as the bus drove away. Now his mother is suing the Utah school district, saying the bus driver intentionally dragged her child because he’s biracial.
Brenda Mayes claims that the Davis School District bus driver has had a history of “racial animus” towards biracial children, and that animus almost led to her child being seriously injured, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday with the U.S District Court Northern Utah Division.
Video given to NBC News by Mayes’ attorney shows the incident from February in which Mayes’ son was departing the bus at West Point Junior High, roughly 30 miles north of Salt Lake City, when the doors closed on his backpack. The bus then moves, dragging the boy for what Mayes’ lawsuit estimated to be 150 to 175 feet.
Mayes claims in her lawsuit that her son was subjected to racial discrimination, harassment, assault and bullying by the bus driver in violation of Title IX and Fourteenth Amendment protections.
The district, the county’s transportation director and the bus driver are all named as defendants in the case.
Had the boy’s backpack straps broken, he “would have dropped to the pavement and could have been run over and killed by the bus or could have sustained serious injuries by the fall onto the concrete,” the lawsuit said.
“He could’ve been crushed,” Mayes told NBC News on Thursday. “That wheel would’ve crushed him, one turn could’ve crushed him.”
Mayes filed a complaint against the bus driver, John Naisbitt, but says nothing was done when she first brought up the incident with school officials. The transportation director, Dave Roberts, was dismissive of her complaints, Mayes said.
Naisbitt retired while the district was investigating, according to the lawsuit. The school district confirmed in a statement he no longer worked for them.
“All I wanted was them to change some type of policy,” Mayes said. “Honestly got blank stares, no response, no anything.”
She told NBC News this is not the first such incident involving Naisbitt.
In October 2018, Mayes claimed that he closed the doors on a neighbor’s child, and attempted to do the same with her younger son.
Her lawsuit also claims that parents made complaints about Naisbitt in 2017 after he allegedly berated the children on the bus, called them names, and refused to take them to their assigned bus stops.
Davis School District said it could not comment on the lawsuit because it had not yet been served.
“However, when issues of discrimination are raised at any time, they are investigated thoroughly,” the district said in a statement. “The Davis School District takes any claims of racial discrimination seriously and does not tolerate any form of racial discrimination in our schools.”
NBC News made attempts to contact John Naisbitt, but phone numbers connected to him through public records appear to be disconnected.
Naisbitt spoke to Fox13 News in Salt Lake City on Tuesday and said he didn’t see the boy caught in his doors. Naisbitt said he warned kids he would be moving because other buses were lined behind him and claimed the incident was staged after he disciplined the boy’s younger brother.
He denied being a racist.
“Not at all. No. Look at my dog. He’s as black as could be,” Naisbitt told Fox13 News.
via:https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/utah-mom-files-civil-rights-suit-against-bus-driver-who-n1003986
Photo Credit: ktla.com
Video credit: ktla.com